Disney Has Recast The Original Star Wars Trio (& Now A NEW Spinoff Can Happen)

Would Disney Ever Make A Spinoff With Han, Luke & Leia?

The potential is there. The heroes of the Star Wars original trilogy have been recast, and the success of tie-in media confirms that there are stories to be told in this time period. But, sadly, it's currently uncertain whether or not Lucasfilm would ever do this.

The core problem is, of course, the untimely death of the late Carrie Fisher. Lucasfilm's primary concern when using the character of Leia Organa is honoring her. Although Lucasfilm's approach with both the young Leia and Peter Cushing's Grand Moff Tarkin in Rogue One showed the potential of bringing Leia back with a recast actress and CGI, the studio recognized that this would be distasteful. Lucasfilm issued a statement in which they insisted they had "no plans" for this approach, and - significantly - hinted that they felt this would dishonor her memory. They're using unused footage of Fisher for Star Wars Episode IX, and the cast and crew are carefully stressing that it's all about respecting the legendary actress who is no longer among them. The wound is clearly still very raw indeed.

It's possible that, after the release of Star Wars 9 and the end of the sequel trilogy, the pain of Carrie Fisher's passing will ease a little and Lucasfilm will consider revisiting the Galactic Civil War with a recast Leia - and maybe even use CGI to do so. But Ingvild Deila has rightly stressed that it would all depend on the wishes of the family. If Lucasfilm could craft a respectful story that earned the family's blessing, and didn't seem like a crude attempt to simply make money off the back of Fisher's brand, it would go a long way to persuading fans to give it a chance. But the studio would need to be very aware of the emotional reactions viewers would have on watching the film.

Meanwhile, note that Lucasfilm has taken very different approaches with each of the recastings. Alden Ehrenreich was given a remarkable amount of latitude to adapt Han Solo for his own film, making the character his own. In contrast, Ingvild Deila was just a "ghost actor," playing Carrie Fisher playing Leia Organa. "You didn’t have personal ownership of a role," she explained. "I was just the vessel." That would undoubtedly be the right approach to take with Leia, but it's unclear how those radically different methods would coexist when placed side-by-side. Certainly, it would be much harder to create the right character dynamics between Leia and Han.

What's more, viewers have never even seen what the recast Luke Skywalker would actually look like on the big screen, so this aspect is currently completely untested. All in all, as interesting as this idea may be for Star Wars fans, it doesn't look as though it's going to happen anytime soon.